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Australian Government Warned of Widening Gap Between Country and City Schools

Widening Gap between country and city schools in Australia is worrisome and Australian Government apprised of the same apparently.

Doubting quality of education in Australia is sinister but is it urban Australia we are talking about or quality education is widespread in Australia? According to Australian Education Union (AEU), students in regional and remote parts of Australia are up to two years behind their metropolitan peers in PISA maths and NAPLAN English tests and the gap is likely to widen in coming years if major funding and structural issues are not addressed.

Many schools have performed below the state average in NAPLAN tests and have issues with writing, spelling, reading, numeracy, grammar, and punctuation.

The AEU submission also includes a number of recommendations to bridge the gap in educational outcomes in different parts of the country. AEU suggested that comprehensive workforce planning across the states and territories to ameliorate teacher quality and retention is the need of the hour. Likewise, without improving initial teacher education anything else would be a barren effort. The need for a far greater focus on improving outcomes for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children is also felt.

The government's review is being led by Flinders University professor John Halsey and aims to "consider the key challenges and barriers that impact on [country] students' learning outcomes". The final report and recommendations are due by the end of the year.

According to the Australian government's 2015 early development census, in remote and very remote areas, between 30 and 40 percent of children are considered vulnerable in one or more of five key domains viz; physical, emotional, social, language and cognitive, or communication and general knowledge when they enter school.

City schools are progressing by leaps and bounds without an iota of a doubt but a degrading situation of country schools needs to be stopped. At this juncture of time, Australian Government must step in and take corrective actions. If this situation worsens further, that would really be a harrowing situation both for parents as well as students.